Talk:Nova/@comment-25065826-20150429201345
I awaken with a start, sitting upright and gasping as I look around. Tom's body has vanished, my backpack, too, and then I believe what happened last night. Reaching to my throat, there are lines of dry blood over my cuts and my hand jerks away from the unfamiliar feel of it, and I'm cold and sweaty. It's pretty early in the morning. I can see more than last night, but without supplies, I won't live long. My throat is parched dry and swallowing feels like trying to get sandpaper down me, and I have no water or food. I stand slowly, the cold air of the morning getting to me, and decide that my best bet is to find a town, which I know inevitably means the town I just fled from is my destination. I don't want to go there, but if I go relatively fast and in the dark of the morning, I should be there before nightfall. Should. I set off with nothing particularly on my mind. That changes quickly. I'm walking through a dense part of woodland and a few slam sounds find their way through the air towards me. I would say it was something mechanical, but I can't be sure. I ignore it, my mind nagging at the back of my mind, and keep walking. Snap, snap, snap, the twigs underfoot protest, almost trying to tell me to stop. The air feels suddenly empty, and a branch brushes my neck as I walk past. Snagging at the scab which I forming. I reach to it, and suddenly it's not my hand on my neck, and then he's fiddling with his phone. His phone... What did he say? He's... his... "Oooh, I forgot!" His location thingy. He forgot to turn it on. Why is the nagging still here, am I forgetting something? What's changed? Silence answers me. I exit the woodland, and look around. The ground looks uneven here, cut with sharp edges almost, kind of... unnatural. Again, I ignore it. But then, the uneven ground is shooting a beam of light at me. And it's now a car, illuminated by the headlights. I can't say that they haven't seen me, the beams follow my steps, so I put my hand over my eyes and look at the car. There are more behind, it would seem, and I hear a shout. "Put your hands down! Don't move, we've got guns on you!" Oh my God. No, they can't... They... Michael's effectively handed me over. So what do I do? Well, I take a few steps backwards. And a bullet files at my leg, which I instinctively pull over my head with gravity. So, being the stupid me, I decide to sprint. Sprint, around the woodland, zigzagging slightly in an attempt to dodge bullets. Running away from them, I have trouble stopping them hitting me but divert them into the ground when I can. But I need to concentrate on running, because the officers, whoever they are, are sprinting after me and aiming with their guns. Sprint, sprint. I feel like I'm drying up, with no water. I don't know who these people are, but I don't want to hurt anyone. They could be after me because of Cloner, I know that, in which case I probably do need to kill them, because I'll die instead and then Emma dies too. And then, I realise, Cloner never gave me a date to have detonated Quantum by. He just wants me dead, and Emma a member of Pluto's army, if not joining me in the grave. I stop to turn around, and a chunk of metal arches in the air above me, flying just past my shoulder. But I'm occupied with misdirecting bullets, and I don't realise it's a grenade until... Well, until- Boom. The flames and shrapnel fly into my left, sending me to the floor in a spiral of flames and metal. I shriek, and roll on the ground, my sleeve is flaming, my arm punctured, and my arm shouldn't be this red- Suddenly, there's a man approaching. I try sitting up, but beating at the flames I can't defend myself and a baton is suddenly in the man's hand. Then slammed into my stomach. I groan, shout, kick, shake, try stopping the bleeding and the burn pain, but it's too much, and- His baton hits my jaw, and I'm flat on the floor. He pulls out handcuffs - ""no, no, please no", I cry, but he just raises his baton and I close my eyes, tensing. But instead of hitting me, rings tighten on my wrists and a thick tape is on my mouth, which doesn't stick the first time because of my make-up. My head is lifted, the tape wrapped around the back of my head a few times, and I can't do anything, I can't move, my arm is burning up and pulsing blood everywhere, my ribs stabbing at the inside of my body... My body is shaking after a jolt of something hot zaps against my collarbone, and my vision slowly...